Posted on 12/27/2006 10:43:22 AM PST by Graybeard58
J.D. Protiva now faces criminal assault charges in addition to Forest Service charges of illegal logging and construction.
A Coconino County grand jury has indicted J.D. Protiva on six felony charges ranging from aggravated assault to endangerment after he said he strung heavy cables across a motorcycle trail on the flanks of the San Francisco Peaks.
One motorcyclist hit a cable earlier this fall on the Challenger Trail near Schultz Pass and fell. He was not seriously injured.
Protiva appeared before Judge Fred Newton at Coconino County Superior Court for a few minutes on Tuesday afternoon.
He asked for a court-appointed attorney and pleaded not guilty.
"Are you currently employed?" Newton asked.
Protiva, 72, said no.
The indictment included one count of aggravated assault, two counts of attempted aggravated assault and three counts of endangerment.
Protiva told Coconino National Forest law enforcement officers he put up cables, built berms and logged trees in an attempt to keep motorcycles away from Mexican spotted owl habitat.
One motorcycling duo noticed one of the cables before hitting it. They stopped and took the cable down.
Protiva would face five to 15 years in prison if convicted on the aggravated assault charge alone.
He has yet to be tried on federal charges in connection with a case of illegal construction in the forest and illegal logging. Those charges could add up to three years in prison and $30,000 in fines if he's found guilty on all counts.
The Coconino County Attorney's Office also charged Protiva with threatening and intimidating on Dec. 14.
Trials will not start until next year.
Protiva has said he was closing a trail he viewed as illegal. He views this trial as an opportunity to prove the Forest Service is not sufficiently protecting its land as legally required.
The district ranger for the Coconino National Forest has called the trail legal but unauthorized.
Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com.
The 'Cpl. Klinger' of the Park Service
Joe Richards recalls J.D. Protiva from a phone call he received in 1992, during the war with Iraq in Kuwait.
Protiva was working at Wupatki National Monument then, and he was what the Park Service called "a problem employee."
Richards, who retired last year after 30 years as Coconino County's sheriff, remembered.
Richards compared Protiva, who sometimes wore articles of women's clothing over his uniform, to Cpl. Klinger on the television show "M*A*S*H."
"His mission in life was apparently to get a disability pension from the Park Service based on his mental status," Richards said. "...He was always doing bizarre kinds of things to focus attention on himself."
So in 1992, when Protiva took a small boat and got himself hoisted to the top of the flagpole at Wupatki, tying a rope around his neck, Richards was called out.
"Hey, there's a guy threatening to commit suicide up in Wupatki," the sheriff heard.
Mattresses were piled around the base of the pole and a cherry-picker was brought out to reach up to the boat.
Protiva said he would jump if anyone tried to force him out of the boat, hanging himself. He had an effigy of the first President Bush with him in the boat and has said he spent the night at the top of the flagpole to make a political statement in opposition of the war.
Richards said Protiva would only come down after Richards convinced him he would get to ask for a medical pension from the Park Service.
"I talked him down," Richards said. "Subsequently, he talked to the Park Service people. Subsequently, I took him into custody."
Not employed huh?
Shocking.
wearing women's clothing not shocking either.
he's fruits and (enviro)nuts...
Protiva, 72, said no.
"His mission in life was apparently to get a disability pension from the Park Service based on his mental status"
My wife had a cousin like this. He got a job as a guard and immediately went out to find a doctor to get him on disability for a bad back (he was obese). Unfortunately for him, he got laid off before he could get everything worked out.
This guy wins the Triple Crown:
Environmentalist whacko
Anti-war zealot
Attempt to defraud government (read: taxpayers) via bogus disability
That's what these leftist moonbat enviro-nuts really are, miserable mental cases who are bound and determined to make everyone else as miserable as they are.
It has nothing to do with enviromentalizm
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